Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said choosing Aya Nakamura to perform Edith Piaf's music at the 2024 Olympics would be “humiliating the French people.”
advertisementAya Nakamura has not yet been confirmed to sing at the Olympic opening ceremony, but reports that French President Emmanuel Macron has approached her to headline the event have sparked a racial uproar in the country.
The prospect of a French-Malian pop singer performing the repertoire of national treasure Edith Piaf has sparked outrage among some far-right supporters.
Nakamura is the most listened to French artist in the world and the only woman to be featured in the country's top 20 best-selling albums of 2023.
But speculation about the Olympics made her the target of what the Paris organizing committee described as a “shockingly racist” campaign.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Her presence is “not a beautiful symbol” and “a further provocation by Emmanuel Macron”.
Le Pen told France Inter on Wednesday that Macron must “wake up every morning” and find “one idea a day to humiliate and enrage the French people.”
She also criticized Nakamura for not singing in French, stating that she did not represent France.
“I'm not even going to talk about her entourage. I'm going to talk about her clothes, her vulgarity, the fact that she doesn't sing French. She doesn't sing foreign languages either. She sings what we don't understand. .”
Marine Le Pen is not the only one targeting Nakamura. She is also the victim of an intense hate campaign online.
At an election rally earlier this month for the Reconquer Party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, Nakamura's name drew boos from the audience.
A small extremist group calling itself Les Natifs (Indigenous Peoples) also hung a banner on the banks of the Seine denouncing the singer's Malian origins.
“No way, Aya, this is Paris, not Bamako market,” the banner read.
according to A public opinion poll, Seventy-three percent of French people believe that Nakamura does not represent “French” music, and 63% oppose the idea of her headlining the opening ceremony.
Sports and Olympic Minister Amélie Oudea-Castella and Culture Minister Rashida Dati defended Nakamura.
“No matter how much we love you, dear Aya Nakamura, please don't worry about the whole world,” Amélie Udea-Castella wrote to X.
Dati warned activists that “attacking someone out of pure racism… attacking an artist for who they are is unacceptable. This is a crime.”
In response, Nakamura wrote:
“You're not deaf even if you're a racist. That's what hurts you! I'm becoming the number one state subject in debates and stuff, but I'm really What do I owe you?”
advertisementIn response to public debate about her use of French, which mixes French with slang, English and other languages, Nakamura told AFP: “'Who do you think she is?' Are you there?”
“But it's important to accept other people's cultures. And I have two cultures.”
Carole Boinet, of the culture magazine Les Inl'Optites, said the reaction from the far right made it even more important for Nakamura to perform at the Olympics.
“Aya Nakamura invented this wonderful language. She has crazy hit songs. France should be proud that an artist like her is known internationally,” Boinet told AFP told.
“This is a controversy that comes from a backward country in France, but it is not for them to decide it. I hope she sings at the Olympics, but it has become essential,” she added.
advertisementMeanwhile, recent YouGov The poll found that the French preferred DJ and producer David Guetta and Daft Punk to perform at the Olympic opening ceremony over Nakamura. That's despite the fact that most of the lyrics were recorded in English.
